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The purpose of this paper is, first, to empirically examine whether the appointment of females (board gender diversity) to the corporate boards of UK financial institutions can improve firm value, and second, to examine whether having females on the boards of UK financial institutions can impact firm value during the pre-/post-global financial crisis periods.

The paper uses secondary data obtained from DataStream covering 63 financial institutions over a period of 12 years. A number of additional statistical estimations, including random effects and fixed effects, are conducted to test the robustness of the findings.

The outcome of this empirical research shows that the presence of females on the corporate boards of UK financial institutions has a positive and statistically significant relationship with firm value. The authors’ evidence reveals a positive and statistically significant impact on the firm’s value prior to the financial crisis, that is, during the pre-crisis period (2000-2006), meaning that women contributed significantly to the firm’s value. However, after the financial crisis, the presence of females on the board had no significant effect on the firm’s value. A reasonable explanation may be that, whilst the financial crisis was over in the period 2009-2011, the entire UK economy was still experiencing an economic downturn, and financial firms were no exception, irrespective of whether there was female representation on any corporate board. Overall, the findings are consistent with the prior studies.

The results have practical implications for governments, policy-makers and regulatory authorities, by indicating the importance of women to corporate success.

Despite several research projects on board gender diversity (BGD), this research is unique compared to the previous empirical studies, primarily because it is the first-time research of this nature is empirically ascertaining BGD and firm value in UK financial institutions, also during the pre-/post-financial crisis era. This paper contributes to the corporate governance literature by offering new insights on board diversity and firms’ value relationship. Overall, the results help fill any gaps on gender diversity and firm value in UK financial institutions.

This paper aims to examine the impact of audit committee (AC) adoption on the financial value of financial institutions in the UK and also to examine the impact of the establishment of an AC on firm value during the pre/post-global financial crisis era.

The paper embarks on a theoretical and empirical literature review on AC adoption and its impact on a firm’s financial value. The paper uses data from 63 financial institutions and covers a 12-year period.

The empirical results indicate that the adoption of an AC by financial institutions has a positive and statistically significant impact on firm value. The results from the pre-crisis period also indicate that the adoption of an AC makes a positive and significant contribution to firm value. However, there is no impact on firm value during the post-crisis period. The results suggest that the entire UK economy experienced an economic downturn after the financial crisis (2009-2011), and financial firms were no exception.

This study helps to fill research gaps on the relationships between ACs and firm value as they exist in UK financial institutions. These findings are important for policymakers and regulators.

This research will encourage firms to establish ACs.

This new finding about the importance of firms having an AC in place is important for policymakers and regulators.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first to conduct an empirical study of the effect of AC adoption on UK financial institutions and firm value. Second, no single study has been conducted on the effects of AC adoption and its impact on either the pre- or post-financial crisis periods. This is the first paper to provide such empirical evidence.

This study investigates the impact of audit reports’ readability on informational efficiency within the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE), emphasizing challenges in an emerging market context characterized by voluntary IFRS adoption and the absence of Big 4 audit firms.

By utilizing hand-collected data from TSE-listed companies, covering 1,097 firm-year observations from 2012 to 2023, readability is assessed using three well-established indexes (Fog, Flesch–Kincaid and Simple Measure of Gobbledygook). Informational efficiency is evaluated by analyzing how stock prices align with a random walk pattern, with additional control variables including governance factors, auditor characteristics and firm-specific indicators to enhance model robustness.

The findings indicate a positive association between audit report readability and informational efficiency, suggesting that clearer and more readable audit reports help reduce information asymmetry. Control variables such as board independence and auditor tenure showed significant impacts, supporting the conclusion that governance and auditor-specific factors enhanced informational efficiency. Agency and institutional theories are used to contextualize these findings, especially within TSE’s unique regulatory environment. The study addresses endogeneity with firm fixed effects and sample selection bias through Heckman’s two-stage procedure. The absence of Big 4 auditors in Iran prompted controls for auditor size effects, supporting our findings across different audit market segments.

Limitations include potential omitted variable bias and challenges in generalizing findings beyond the TSE. Despite applying firm fixed effects and Heckman’s two-stage procedure to control for endogeneity, some residual biases may remain.

For regulators, auditors and investors, these findings underscore the value of promoting readability in audit reports to improve informational efficiency, particularly in emerging markets with evolving regulatory standards.

By focusing on audit report readability within an emerging market lacking Big 4 presence, this study offers unique insights into how readability can foster transparency and investor confidence in regions with distinct market dynamics.

This paper aims to examine whether variations in country-specific business integrity (BI) and firm-specific environmental, social and governance (ESG) dimensions can explain variations in earnings quality (EQ) in Northern and Southern EU civil law countries.

Regarding EQ, the analysis builds on the “small gain, small loss” (SGSL) model of Burgstahler and Dichev (1997) and Burgstahler and Chuk (2015). The authors explain SGSL with the BI. Southern Europe or “Club Med” is typically associated with a less rigorous institutional regime than Northern Europe.

Results evidenced higher EQ in the Northern EU compared with the Southern EU. Furthermore, EQ is explained successfully with the Business Integrity Index (BII) and ESG. The results suggest that BII and ESG represent different dimensions, and, therefore, both should be included in the models explaining EQ.

The results show that the Northern EU civil law countries have higher EQ compared with the Southern EU civil law countries. The difference is explained by the BII variable. For the Southern EU, legislators and other public policy decision-makers should build up and apply tools to limit and fight corruption in those jurisdictions. The impactful elimination of corruption would, in turn, establish a firmer basis to foster ethical behavior and financial market sophistication developments.

The study offers additional insights on the determinants of EQ in the EU civil law countries. The prior literature has argued that, categorically, in common law countries firms engage in higher-quality reporting than those in civil law countries. The results evidence that EQ varies within the EU civil law countries; that is, a country’s BI and firm-specific ESG contribute to the explanation for EQ. A more specific explanation for the reasons in the EQ “within” civil law jurisdictions could be related to legislators and other public policy decision-makers in charge of establishing regimes and public policies supporting high-quality accounting.

This study aims to investigate the impact of audit partners’ narcissism on the readability of audit reports for companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE). It examines the effects of narcissism among both lead and review audit partners on the clarity of audit reports, considering the regulatory requirements and auditing practices within the Iranian financial reporting context.

This paper analyzed 2,691 firm-year observations from TSE-listed companies spanning 2011–2023, using ordinary least squares regression. Readability of audit reports was assessed using the FOG index, with the size of partners’ signatures serving as a proxy for narcissism.

The findings indicate a significant negative relationship between increased narcissism and audit report readability; higher levels of narcissism correspond with elevated FOG index scores. Narcissism in lead partners notably diminishes readability more than that of review partners. This pattern holds across various robustness checks, including alternative readability metrics, variations in auditor engagement complexity, auditor specialization, subsets of qualified audit reports and considerations for endogeneity. Audit reports for economically significant clients tend to be clearer, suggesting a preference for reputation management over yielding to client pressure. Although no direct link was established between partners’ quality and readability, a positive relationship exists between audit firm rank and partners’ narcissism. Furthermore, interactions between auditor and CEO narcissism increase report complexity, especially in contentious negotiation scenarios. Despite regulatory advancements such as International Auditing Standard 701, its moderating effects were found to be inconsequential, highlighting the persistent influence of narcissism on audit report outcomes.

This research expands the understanding of how auditor personality traits, particularly narcissism, affect audit outcomes. By exploring the influence of narcissism on report readability within the Iranian context, this study fills a notable gap in the literature on emerging markets and non-Western reporting environments, providing valuable insights into global audit practices.

This study compares those interim disclosures that managers desire to make with those they are required to make. Managers and regulators agree on the optimal degree of disclosure on growth potential and size. It appears that the less managers voluntarily disclose, the greater the firm's growth potential. This may be because managers feel that other evidence signals the good future prospects or the information indicating positive growth is too proprietary to reveal to competitors. Some differences are observed. Managers would pay more attention to the specific needs of their governance groups. Regulations would require more disclosure of variables indicating: business risk; capital structure; and growth. These differences in perceived need for disclosure highlight the importance of continued study of the optimal scope and scale of disclosure.

Globally, there are more than 16 stock markets that are undergoing drastic enough growth to be considered emerging. These markets possess characteristics very distinct from those which may be characterised as mature. This paper compares interim reporting regimes in two markets with these different characteristics. The regulatory environment within the USA represents a mature market, and the Finnish regulatory environment depicts an emerging market. First, historical developments are detailed for both of these contexts. Similarities and differences in the regulation are systematically pointed out. Second, the potential consequences of some differences in regulatory schemes are discussed. Special emphasis is placed on the influences these variations have on both legislators and the producers of interim reports. This paper should offer valuable insights for the regulation of a large number of emerging markets.

The purpose of this paper is to address recent calls for research regarding the valuation implications of mandatory disclosure requirements (cf. Hassan et al., 2009; Leuz and Wysocki, 2008; Schipper, 2007).

The paper measures compliance with all International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) mandatory disclosure requirements for a sample of firms. The paper subsequently explores whether the compliance scores (i.e. the mandatory disclosure levels) are value relevant and whether the value relevance of accounting numbers differs across high- and low-compliance/disclosure companies.

The paper finds that the levels of mandatory disclosures are value relevant. Additionally, not only the relative value relevance (i.e. R2) but also the valuation coefficient of net income of high-compliance companies is significantly higher than that of low-compliance companies.

This paper is an indicative single country case study that focuses on the IFRS adoption year (2005) in the EU. It forms a new avenue for research regarding the valuation implications of mandatory disclosure requirements. It remains to future research to examine whether the findings also hold in other countries and periods.

These findings are expected to be particularly relevant to standard setters and regulatory bodies that are concerned about the implications of mandatory disclosure requirements (Schipper, 2007).

To the best of authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper that examines the value relevance implications of IFRS mandatory disclosure requirements, focusing on European country after 2005. The authors indicate that IFRS mandatory disclosures do lead to more transparent financial statements (cf. Pownall and Schipper, 1999), mitigating concerns about companies’ fundamentals (cf. Anctil et al., 2004).

This paper seeks to broaden the agenda for environmental and ecological accounting research across several dimensions, extending the form of accounting in this field by encouraging research into its historical roots and developing a definition of accounting that can address the severe environmental and ecological challenges of the 21st century.

The authors explored environmental and ecological accounts from the dawn of human consciousness across a wide variety of media and in a broad range of forms. This theoretical approach reacts to the cold capitalist commodification of nature inherent in much environmental accounting practice, which documents, values and records usage of natural capital with little attempt to address depletion and loss.

By analysing the earliest ecological and environmental “accounts” recorded by humans at the dawn of human consciousness, and considering a wide array of subsequent accounts, the authors demonstrate that rather than being a secondary, relatively recent development emerging from financial accounting and reporting, environmental and ecological accounting predated financial accounting by tens of thousands of years. This research also provides a wealth of perspectives on diversity, not only in forms of account but also in the diversity of accountants, as well as the broadness of the stakeholders to whom and to which the accounts are rendered.

The paper can be placed at the intersection of accounting history, the alternative, interdisciplinary and critical accounts literature, and environmental and ecological accounting research.

Practically, the authors can draw ideas and inspiration from the historical forms and content of ecological and environmental account that can inform new forms of and approaches to accounting.

There are social implications including the diversity of accounts and accountants derived from studying historical ecological and environmental accounts from the dawn of human consciousness especially in the broadening out of the authors' understanding of the origins and cultural roots of accounting.

This study concludes with a new definition of accounting, fit for purpose in the 21st century, that integrates ecological, environmental concerns and is emancipatory, aiming to restore nature, revive biodiversity, conserve species and enhance ecosystems.